Tales Twice Told HEART THROBS "I Know My Love!"

The story we presented yesterday, "Summer Love", had previously-appeared under this cover...

..in DC's Heart Throbs #63 (1960).

When it was reprinted in 1970, the title was changed.

(DC tended to do this more than Marvel.

It drives comics historians nuts trying to match up different printings of stories!)

John Romita Sr was doing a lot of romance comics work for DC during this period, before leaving to go to Marvel in early 1965.

You'll note that, besides the usual "updating" of hair and clothing in yesterday's story, the art in the reprint version is "extended" on each page because the original pages had a printed header across the top of the art area.

The reprints eliminated the headers, and the art was extended either along the top or bottom of the page, depending on which way would be easier and/or faster to do.

As we showed HERE, this "updated reprinting" became a common practice on romance comics until the genre all-but died out in the late 1970s.

Publishers would do a new 6-12 page lead story and use retouched reprints to fill out the book.

Editors felt that:

a) the plots were relatively timeless.

b) updating the art was cheaper than totally-redrawing the story. 

c) the artists were better-utilized doing stuff that sold better (like superheroes).
d) the audience for romance comics, unlike superhero comics, totally-changed every 5-6 years anyway, and wouldn't notice the "old" plots.

Next week:

We Re-Present Our Annual Summertime "Beach Read" Book-Length Gothic Romance Novel...

You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!

(Oh, you've heard that, eh?)
And Now a Woed From Out Sponsor (Us)...

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Heart Throbs

Best of DC Romance Comics
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It's the Season for Lovin' GIRLS' LOVE STORIES "Summer Love"

Here's some light beach reading now that Summer's under way...

...in fact, it's so light, there's no dialogue or captions!

Not a single, solitary word, except the title...

We re-present this silent story for your perusal from DC's Girls' Love Stories #155 (1970).
The writer is unknown, but the art is by penciler John Romita Sr and inker Bernard Sachs!
You may wonder how and why the artist who was then drawing Spider-Man for Marvel would do a romance comic story for rival DC?

If you come back
Tomorrow
I'll explain!

And now a word from our sponsor...

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Heart Throbs

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Hot Snow HEART THROBS "Winter Meeting" & GIRLS" LOVE STORIES "That Special Moment"

 Here's a (Literally) Kool, Twice-Told Tale of the Flames of Love...

...kindled in the snow!

Appearing in DC's Heart Throbs #69 (1960-61), which came out in late autumn-early winter, the Tony Abruzzo & Bernard Sachs-illustrated story perfectly-captured the mood of the season!
When it was reprinted a decade later in DC's Girls' Love Stories #163 (1971), also in late autumn-early winter, it was "updated" with then-current hairstyles and fashions!
In addition, because the "Heart Throbs" header on each page was removed, the art was extended, resulting in some interesting layout reworking, like on the splash page!
But, unlike most "updated" reprints, some of this one's captions and dialogue balloons have been rewritten...

It's unknown why some of the dialogue and captions were re-written.
Next Week , We're Going Mod for February!
And, as Always, We Guarantee...
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!

And now a word from our sponsor...

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Heart Throbs
Best of DC Romance Comics
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Divorce American Style GIRLS' LOVE STORIES "Child of Divorce"

We End the Month with a Case of a Product of a Broken Marriage... 

Cover art by Art Saaf & Vince Colletta
...and how it may affect the now-grown daughter's future!

Art for this never-reprinted story from DC's Girls' Love Stories #163 (1971) is by Tony DeZuniga.

The writer is unknown.

Next Week , We're Returning to a Previously-Done Theme with All-New Entries!

Which One?

You'll Have to Be Here To See!

But We Guarantee...

You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!

And now a word from our sponsor...

Support True Love Comics Tales!
Visit Amazon and Order...

Heart Throbs
Best of DC Romance Comics

GIRLS' LOVE STORIES "Revenge!" & YOUNG ROMANCE "Take Me Back!"

We wind up February with this story...

...which, like the previous entries, didn't originally feature Black protagonists, as you'll see!

In our entry about Fawcett's 1950s title Negro Romance (HERE), we mentioned that the actual stories were rather generic, with the characters being illustrated as Black rather than White being the only difference.

This John Rosenberger-penciled and Win Mortimer-inked tale from DC's Girls' Love Stories #170 (1972) proves that point, since it's actually a visually-modified version of this story...

...from DC's Young Romance #151 (1967-68)!

BTW, the original tale was the cover feature!

While the fashions, hairstyles, and the leads' facial features were modified, the script stayed almost exactly the same!

Even the characters' names (Terry and Rich) were unchanged!
(Credit where credit is due: amazing romance comics historian Jacque Nodell pointed out the link between these two stories HERE!)

But the saga doesn't end there!

The story was re-presented one more time, in DC's Young Love #111 (1974)...

...this time with the usual "updating" of hairstyles and fashions...but very little modification of the original script and Terry and Rich stayed Caucasian!

Next Week:

We don't yet know what we'll present!

(But if you read last week's post, you'll see what we might run!)

No matter what, we can guarantee that...

You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!

And now a word from our sponsor...

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Sequential Crush presents

How to Go Steady

Timeless Dating Advice, Wisdom, and Lessons from Vintage Romance Comics

by

Jacque Nodell